GAO Slips Dirty Bomb Material Past Border Patrols. Feel safe?

[JABBS]

Undercover investigators working on behalf of the non-partisan Government Accountability Office slipped a radioactive substance -- enough to make two dirty bombs -- across northern and southern US borders last year in a test of security at American ports of entry.

Radiation detection equipment at the unidentified sites went off, but the investigators were permitted to enter the United States after using counterfeit documents to deceive customs agents.

Make you feel safe, huh?

A GAO investigation carried out between July and December 2005 by the investigative arm of Congress, identified potential security holes that terrorists seeking to covertly carry nuclear weapons into the United States might be able to exploit.

''This operation demonstrated that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is stuck in a pre-9/11 mind-set in a post-9/11 world and must modernize its procedures," Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), said yesterday in a statement.

A commission spokesman offered a spin line as a response.

''Security has been of prime importance for us on the materials front and the power plant front since 9/11," the commission's spokesman, David McIntyre, told the Associated Press.

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This item first appeared at JABBS.

[noonwitch]

1. And I'm the one who needs a passport to get back from dinner in Windsor?

Unbelieveable.

[JABBS]

2. you would have done better

if you had nuclear materials on you ... they'd let you drive through, no doubt.